Note from “The Journal of the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society,” Volumes 14-15, page 9. 1897. “The ruins at Toluvila, near Nuwaravewa, have more than fulfilled the expectations formed in 1893. The felling of the undergrowth for a quarter of a mile around disclosed more and more buildings, and as excavations advanced southwards from the main quadrangle the extent of this magnificent monastery gradually unfolded itself. The general plan of this monastery may be described curtly thus:--On the north is a spacious raised quadrangle with four entrance porches and a ramp of cut stone supporting brick elephants in high relief. The square enclosure contains four shrines-a pilimagè (image house) dāgabe, watadāgé (circular relic shrine) and vihāré. From this quadrangle runs, for some 250 yards or more, a wide street between two walls of dressed stone, passing over a plain smaller quadrangle and a peculiar star-shaped “half-way house,” until it reaches, on the south, another large quadrangle. This encloses a smaller square at a higher level, and that again a central vihāré raised still higher, with pirivenas (residences for monks) lying off its corners and beyond. On either side of this fine street are many other pirivenas, with connected buildings and outhouses laid out in wonderful symmetry. The whole of the trees on the street have been removed, root and branch, and the vista opened out from one main quadrangle to the other through the forest is as picturesque as it is unique. In several respects the Toluvila monastery stands unrivalled among the ruins of Anuradhapura yet cleared and excavated.”